Prime Minister Mark Carney says the Liberals are "good fiscal managers" — and he'll have the chance to prove it when the federal government tables its spring economic update Tuesday afternoon. The federal government typically tables mid-year updates between annual budgets to revise its economic and fiscal projections. These updates can include new spending and are sometimes referred to as...
The European Union says Prime Minister Mark Carney will be in Armenia this weekend as part of a summit focused on strategic issues. Carney's office has not publicly confirmed the visit, but European Council President Antonio Costa says on social media that the prime minister will be attending. The European Political Community summit will take place in the Armenian capital...
Prime minister points to other countries he suggests are unhappy with agreements reached with U.S. Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canada and the U.S. could resolve the ongoing tariff dispute within "days" if the U.S. side had the "bandwidth and the inclination to go through with it." The U.S. has maintained hefty import levies on a number of Canadian goods...
PM says he wants to see his successors return to official residence. The state of 24 Sussex Drive is "an embarrassment," says Prime Minister Mark Carney, who suggested he wants a decision made about the future of the derelict residence meant for Canada's prime ministers. "You're not going to see me at 24 Sussex, but I would like to see...
Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the country's first national sovereign wealth fund on Monday, pitching it as a way for Canadians to invest in nation-building projects. Carney said the Canada Strong Fund will invest in major Canadian industrial projects in areas such as energy, infrastructure, mining, agriculture and technology. The prime minister said the federal government will put up funds...
Canada’s political landscape remains tilted towards the incumbents, though with signs of restlessness beneath the surface. Economic pressures continue to dominate public concern, with jobs, inflation and the broader cost of living crowding out other issues. Support for the governing Liberals remains well ahead of their rivals, while the Conservatives struggle to convert dissatisfaction into momentum. Smaller parties hold their...
The Liberal Party maintains a commanding lead, though its advantage has narrowed somewhat over the past month. The Liberals stand at 44.5 per cent nationally, while the Conservatives are 14 points behind at 31.0 per cent. Although the Liberals would easily win a majority government with these numbers, the margin has tightened from nearly 21 points last month.
The thing about the new Canadian “sovereign wealth fund” (SWF) announced on Monday by Prime Minister Mark Carney is that, judging by what we know so far, it’ll be pretty much the opposite of what he’s comparing it to. The prime minister cited Norway as a leading example of a country with a successful SWF — and so it is...
For all the talk that Prime Minister Mark Carney is a small-c conservative his announcement that Canada will create a sovereign wealth fund was a confirmation of his capital-L Liberal predilections. The form of the fund might be a little surprising, given that the sovereign wealth funds of resource-rich nations are usually seeded with windfall earnings socked away for the...
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe is calling Ottawa's new sovereign wealth fund a good initiative. But Moe says if Prime Minister Mark Carney really wants to unlock investments in major projects, then the government should walk back a number of environmental policies he says are getting in the way. Carney says the fund will be used to invest in major Canadian...
Former B.C. Liberal MP John Aldag wants his party to begin nominating candidates as soon as possible so they can start campaigning and fundraising for the next election. A significant number of exempt ministerial and MP staffers who left in 2024 expecting a Liberal defeat are now returning to Parliament Hill, as the party now holds a majority and Prime...
Canada is at a crossroads. In the coming days and weeks, the federal government will decide whether the country compromises its climate commitments or embraces a more sustainable path towards a greener future.
Its natural gas reserves have the potential to enrich its people and power the world. Let’s get some shovels in the ground
My March podcast interview with Pierre Poilievre drew a lot of attention, but one of the sharpest responses came from Max Fawcett, an award-winning Calgary journalist who’s been sharply critical of the notion that the West’s resource sector is singled out for mistreatment. Max just flat cancelled his subscription to this newsletter, and tore a strip off me on Bluesky...
Asked about how he went bankrupt, one of the characters in Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Sun Also Rises replies, “gradually, then suddenly.” That’s what’s in store for Canada’s supply management system, an outdated, regressive policy from the 1970s that protects the dairy and poultry sectors by artificially raising consumer prices and drastically restricting imports. It will disappear, gradually then suddenly...
Sovereign wealth funds are typically established by countries to manage their surplus wealth. Canada has just established the Canada Strong Fund — this country’s first national sovereign wealth fund — despite being deeply in the red. In short, there is no surplus wealth to manage.
No Canadian prime minister has ever faced a more difficult relationship with an American president than Prime Minister Mark Carney does with Donald Trump.
Like others, my immediate thoughts upon watching Prime Minister Mark Carney’s “Forward Guidance” video was a comparison to former United States president Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s “fireside chats” during the 1930s and ’40s. FDR used these chats for several purposes but, like Carney, most importantly they were a way of communicating directly with voters without the filters of media. FDR’s chats...
It’s nice that U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen got a few cheers in Canada for taking U.S. officials to task for their insults. But it’s the injury that is the real problem. Ms. Shaheen snapped back at U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who had recently said his Canadian counterparts “suck” and complained during a Senate subcommittee hearing last week that liquor...
You wouldn’t know it, from their usual delusional bluster, but Donald Trump’s team is starting to panic. And perhaps they should. The president’s popularity is plummeting. One clear reason: the economic revolution he promised has turned into a catastrophe.
While the federal Liberals smugly refer to themselves as Canada’s natural governing party, the historical record suggests that may be true, despite the danger it poses to democracy.
Let me be clear: on the underlying question, Doug Ford was right.
If U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration hoped to strengthen Canada’s hand in trade talks, it could hardly have done a better job. This week, the U.S. deputy trade representative Rick Switzer told the Council of Foreign Relations that Prime Minister Mark Carney is guilty of “political malpractice” for pitting himself politically against the president, that he’s driven by his “ego,”...
With Liberal MPs holding a majority of seats in the House of Commons, government House leader Steven MacKinnon moved a motion on Thursday that would see that majority reflected in the allotment of seats on House committees. This would be an entirely remarkable development — the sort of procedural housekeeping that occurs at the start of each Parliament — except...
In the classic Canadian tradition of diffusing the pain by enlarging the official target field, Prime Minister Mark Carney this week unveiled a 24-member Advisory Committee on Canada-US Economic Relations to buttress his negotiating team heading into the looming CUSMA review with the United States and Mexico. The committee is composed of some pan-partisan political figures, from former federal Tory...
Was John Turner right? Is Donald Trump’s weaponization of Canada’s dependence on trade with the United States vindication of the Liberal leader’s dire prophecies during the 1988 election campaign? Is this the bitter fruit of the Mulroney government’s decision, all those years ago, to sign a free-trade agreement with the United States?
We’ve been warned for months that Canada faces exceedingly tough talks on renewing the CUSMA/USMCA trade deal. With Donald Trump blowing off the importance of Canada (“we don’t need anything they have”), it was shaping up as a cage match at the negotiating table. As of this week, though, we face the very real possibility of an even more ominous...
In a recent op-ed, Liberal MP and former environment minister Steven Guilbeault wrote that the government's energy ambitions put the country at a climate crossroads. Power & Politics questions Guilbeault on his hopes for the Canada-Alberta Memorandum of Understanding, and on his thoughts regarding the current state of the Liberal party.
When Mark Carney skated over to the TV cameras at an ice rink in Ottawa this month, he introduced his hockey buddy Alexander Stubb to Canadians as “the man, the myth, the legend” and the prime minister’s “No. 1 draft choice.” Carney isn’t putting together a beer league, nor is he trying out for the Ottawa Charge, whose practice he...
New NDP Leader Avi Lewis has set his sights on bringing an end to the practice of surveillance pricing, calling it a “crystal clear example of why we desperately need government guardrails to protect us from the triple threat of Big Tech, AI and corporate monopolies that dominate every sector of our economy.” During a press conference in Ottawa flanked...
Among the former politicians and CEOs of a mining giant, a paper company, a steel company, a potash producer, a railway, a bank, and lobby groups for small business and the auto and aluminum sectors, there was a glaring omission: experts from the tech sector. The 24 people on the Advisory Committee on Canada-U.S. Economic Relations announced by Prime Minister...
Opinion on Canada’s New! Liberal! Majority! Government! has tended to divide into two camps. On one hand are those, mostly to be found on the Conservative end of things, who denounce the process by which the Liberals attained their majority – five opposition MPs, crossing the floor one after the other, like baby ducks – as illegitimate, even undemocratic. Canadians...
Jim Balsillie said Canada was ‘hijacked’ last time around and is likely to be further disadvantaged in the pending negotiations
For one shining moment in Washington on Wednesday, a Democratic senator stared down Donald Trump’s administration with some words that many Canadians have been wanting to hurl in the president’s direction. It was during a Senate subcommittee hearing when U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick — the same one who said “they suck” when referring to Canada last week — was...
Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party never mentioned the prospect of an independence referendum in the last election campaign, and voters never gave them a mandate to pursue one. But that hasn’t stopped her from pushing the province into a polarizing separatist debate, one that’s already attracting attention — and almost certainly interference — from foreign powers. Worse, it might all...
The recent defection of longtime Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal caucus — followed swiftly by a string of federal byelection wins that secured a governing majority — has reignited a familiar debate in Canadian politics: the merits and risks of “big tent” political parties.
Prime Minister Mark Carney wants us to believe the rupture with the United States will be long-lasting, maybe here to stay. He suggested it again in his weekend video posted on YouTube. “Some ... believe that we should wait in the hope that the United States will return to normal,” he said. “But hope isn’t a plan and nostalgia is...
A senior government source told iPolitics that senators are slowing down a bill supported by the Liberals and Conservatives, as well as provincial and territorial premiers, and municipal police chiefs.
Prime Minister Mark Carney's new advisory council on Canada--U.S. trade met for the first time today, ahead of trade negotiations with President Donald Trump's White House that are set to begin over the coming months. Carney recently struck the new committee in preparation for the scheduled review of the Canada-United States-Mexico agreement on trade, better known as CUSMA, which must...
Quebec's premier met today in Washington D.C. with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, an influential member of President Donald Trump's cabinet. Christine Frechette met Greer ahead of negotiations between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico on the continental free-trade pact, scheduled to begin July 1.
Canadian wood manufacturers are welcoming a trade inquiry into wood imports but say the investigation needs to be followed by immediate provisional tariffs on foreign-made goods entering the country. Earlier this month, Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said the government had directed the Canadian International Trade Tribunal to launch an inquiry into global imports of wood cabinets and vanities, hardwood flooring...
Business groups say the federal government's decision to establish Canada's first sovereign wealth fund could be helpful to get projects going, but is not a singular fix. Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the Canada Strong Fund on Monday, saying it will invest in major Canadian industrial projects in areas such as energy, infrastructure, mining, agriculture and technology with an initial...
The three Liberals who won the byelections that secured a majority government for Prime Minister Mark Carney earlier this month took their seats in the House of Commons on Monday. The government moved quickly to make use of its new majority powers by introducing a motion to limit debate on a change to the House rules that would enable the...
NDP Leader Avi Lewis said Monday he won't run in an upcoming Quebec byelection to fill a seat being left vacant by Alexandre Boulerice. Boulerice officially announced Monday he is leaving Parliament to run provincially for the Quebec solidaire after spending 15 years as an MP. He will sit as an Independent until he formally resigns his seat in the...
After 15 years in Ottawa with the NDP, Montreal MP Alexandre Boulerice says he is quitting federal politics to join Quebec solidaire -- a leftist, sovereigntist party -- ahead of October's provincial election. His departure had been an open secret for some time, and he made the official announcement Monday in the Montreal riding of Gouin, where he will seek...
On the eve of his first spring economic update, Prime Minister Mark Carney insists his government is focused on “doing more than one thing at one time” to increase affordability for Canadians. Carney made the comments in Ottawa Monday, speaking to reporters following his announcement that his government is creating Canada’s first national sovereign wealth fund. A sovereign wealth fund...
Conservative MPs are calling on the auditor general to probe the federal government's handling of a $250 million program which is reportedly set to be scrapped next month. PrescribeIT was launched in 2017 to modernize the way doctors send prescriptions to pharmacies and to phase out older technology, such as fax machines. Conservative MP Dan Mazier cites reporting by The...
The three Liberals who won the byelections earlier this month that secured a majority government for Prime Minister Mark Carney are taking their seats in the House of Commons today. Doly Begum, Danielle Martin and Tatiana Auguste were sworn in as members of Parliament on Saturday. Begum and Martin are newcomers who replaced outgoing cabinet ministers Bill Blair and Chrystia...
The sign on the door says “closed” and Jamie Morningstar is not happy. Clutching an envelope of income tax papers, he’s come for help to the constituency office of local MP Marilyn Gladu, who two weeks ago stunned the populace — and Parliament — by jumping from the Conservatives to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals.
Finance minister says economic resilience and affordability are priorities. Finance experts predict Tuesday's spring economic update will contain a number of new economic measures aimed at tackling affordability and the wider economic challenges of the country, and they expect the update will show a smaller-than-forecasted deficit. "That'll be the headline number that will likely get a lot of attention," said...
A new poll from the Angus Reid Institute suggests Canadians are giving Prime Minister Mark Carney's government a passing grade in its first year of international relations, but it has failed to meet expectations on affordability issues. The poll asked 2,013 Canadians a series of questions about the government's performance since it won the election on April 28, 2025. Last...
Fresh off a by-election sweep and a newly formed (if thin) majority in the House of Commons, the federal Liberals have increased their lead over the Conservatives in recent days—not because Liberal support has surged, but because the Conservatives have slipped further back in the aggregate. In our latest episode of The Numbers (recorded Thursday morning), Eric and I discussed...
Canadian oil producers will provide a first glimpse this week of how the spike in energy prices is boosting their bottom line — and what they plan to do with the bumper profits. Companies are releasing financial results for the first three months of the year, covering a period when oil prices were relatively low in January and February before...
The deadline to apply for an open seat on the Supreme Court of Canada is Monday, and Prime Minister Mark Carney is expected to have more candidates to choose from the West compared with the region’s previous vacancy on the top court. Justice Sheilah Martin, from Calgary, announced her retirement in mid-January. Her last day is May 30. Mr. Carney...
Prime Minister Mark Carney will announce plans to create a sovereign wealth fund Monday, a day ahead of the spring economic statement, according to a senior government official. The fund will be used to invest alongside the private sector in major projects that the Carney government has committed to building over the coming years, and the government also plans to...
Quebec Premier Christine Frechette will travel to Washington on Monday for her first official foreign mission. She will arrive there just as the U.S. capital has been shaken by what appears to be another assassination attempt targeting President Donald Trump. The visit comes just two months before trade negotiations begin on the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement, scheduled for July 1.
Liberal government tabling new fiscal picture amid U.S. trade war, oil instability. Ahead of an important fiscal update this week, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is demanding Prime Minister Mark Carney cap the federal deficit at $31 billion, in part by eliminating big ticket items like a major rail project and the gun buyback program. "We should have no deficit," Poilievre...
Prime Minister Mark Carney will be under pressure to show results from his economic agenda when his government tables an update to its fiscal outlook on Tuesday. The spring economic statement comes one year to the day after the party secured a minority mandate in the federal election, a fourth win for the Liberals in a row, but the first...
Former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole is cautioning the prime minister that despite the need to diversify trade, China is not a substitute for the United States. O’Toole has been tapped to join Prime Minister Mark Carney’s 24-member Canada-U.S. Advisory Committee, unveiled this week as a formal review of the countries’ trilateral trade deal with Mexico fast approaches. More than a...
'Even if these votes don't pass, the uncertainty that the sentiment exists could impact the appetite for companies to invest in Canada,' says pollster Nik Nanos. Separatist sentiment in Alberta and Quebec pose risks to investor confidence that could damage Canada’s economy, presenting a challenge for Prime Minister Mark Carney as he tries to pursue a national unity agenda in...
The Manitoba government is planning to ban children from using social media and artificial intelligence chatbots. Premier Wab Kinew announced the policy at the Manitoba NDP's annual spring fundraising dinner and says Manitoba will be the first province to make the move, but he did not specify an age. He says the platforms expose children to online harms and create...
President Donald Trump and top officials were rushed to safety after shots were fired near stairs leading down to the main ballroom.
Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre is calling for the suspension of all federal fuel taxes, including the excise tax, the carbon tax and the GST, for the rest of 2026 in an effort to address the spike in fuel prices in Canada, which he says are 15 per cent higher than those in the United States. Poilievre told CP24 and...
The Prime Minister keeps his cool in public, but he's said to sometimes lose that cool in private. Doesn't suffer fools well and demands action not foot dragging. This week we saw him come close to bluntly telling the Americans to back off with the demands and get with the program on trade talks. That's just one of the things...
With ongoing momentum and the Conservative and NDP vote collapse in Terrebonne, pollster Greg Lyle says the Liberals have a good shot at winning in Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie, a riding represented by the same NDP MP for the last 15 years. After recently winning the challenging Quebec riding of Terrebonne, the Liberals are feeling bullish and are now eyeing the Montreal...
Prime Minister Mark Carney and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum agreed on Friday to closely coordinate their efforts as potentially turbulent talks commence on renewing a trilateral trade pact with the United States. The two leaders spoke Friday about the upcoming review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a readout. And they pledged “close coordination to...
American liquor will only return to Manitoba store shelves if the U.S. drops all tariffs on Canadian goods, Wab Kinew said Friday. Manitoba has boycotted American booze since February 2025, and the premier said in an interview with CTV Power Play‘s Mike Le Couteur that besides dropping tariffs, the only other thing that could affect negotiations would be the full...
WASHINGTON (AP) -- King Charles III will embrace some of Washington's most formal ceremonial trappings on Tuesday as he tries to emphasize a bond between the United Kingdom and the United States that is so strong it can withstand the political turmoil of the moment.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- King Charles III will embrace some of Washington's most formal ceremonial trappings on Tuesday as he tries to emphasize a bond between the United Kingdom and the United States that is so strong it can withstand the political turmoil of the moment.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- When the Supreme Court killed his favorite tariffs in February, President Donald Trump promptly rolled out temporary import taxes to replace them. But those stopgap levies expire in less than three months.
Donald and Melania Trump both called for ABC to fire Jimmy Kimmel on Monday after a joke last week in which the late-night comic described the first lady as having "the glow of an expectant widow."
President Donald Trump and top officials were rushed to safety after shots were fired near stairs leading down to the main ballroom.
Ottawa has announced an increase in the number of direct flights permitted to bring passengers and cargo to and from China. Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon says there will be "an incremental increase" in flights between the countries in response to Prime Minister Mark Carney's outreach visit to Beijing in January. Canadian and Chinese airlines will be allowed to boost the...
The strait will not be fully reopened “until America allows full freedom of navigation for vessels traveling from Iran,” Iranian military officials indicated. Iranian military officials said Saturday that conditions in the Strait of Hormuz have reverted to "strict control," citing the continued U.S. blockade of its ports, just one day after declaring the waterway “completely open.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney told world leaders today Canada welcomes the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and the announcement of a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon. The Prime Minister's Office says Carney took part virtually in a meeting with dozens of world leaders to talk about securing the strait.
Strait will remain completely open for rest of ceasefire, Iran's foreign minister says. Iran's foreign minister announced Friday that passage for all commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz is completely open following a ceasefire agreement reached in Lebanon yesterday, but President Donald Trump said the U.S. naval blockade on Iran will remain in place until a deal with Tehran...
The first year of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s leadership has had a transformational impact on both Canada’s foreign policy and its standing in the world. The shift has been especially evident in the Indo-Pacific, where Ottawa is more active, more strategic, and more ambitious than it has ever been.
Canada’s long-standing openness helped build one of the world’s most respected immigration systems. However, the intellectual establishment’s push for ever-expanding “inclusivity” has driven that openness beyond what many Canadians consider reasonable.
A comparison of two separate surveys conducted during the 2021 and 2025 election years shows a misalignment between the positions of election candidates and those of their constituents on the division of powers in Canada. While the views of candidates and voters were relatively close on this issue in 2021, the gap widened in 2025. The percentage of voters who...
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
I nearly drove off the road when I heard Pope Leo’s powerful message on the radio this week.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s office wants to bust up a monopoly. I think I’m the target. Let me explain. The Privy Council Office (PCO), home of the prime minister and cabinet, has been flooded with complaints about its failures to comply with the Access to Information Act.
Canadian troops may be only days away from deploying to the Middle East to aid the U.S.’s and Israel’s war on Iran. The latest indication is a joint statement expressing concern about Iran’s restriction of oil tankers through the narrow Strait of Hormuz signed by Prime Minister Mark Carney and NATO allies late in the week.
The Davos Speech, the Tariff profile, and now the Canada Strong Fund. It's been a busy year for Mark Carney since being elected as Canada's 24th Prime Minister this day last year, and as Canadians face tough economic and geopolitical uncertainty, we're taking a look back at how Carney has managed to bring the country together through some of the...
The Iran War enters its ninth week, but the fighting has been over for a while. Does that mean the war is over? Dr. Janice Stein is with us as she always is on Mondays and that's the topic today as the two sides, the United States and Iran, try to find ways to meet and negotiate. And Janice also...
Former Newfoundland premier Brian Peckford is the one man still alive who was personally in the room with then prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau when provinces and the federal government agreed, together, to a new Constitution Act and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. He talks to Brian about the real basis for Section 33 — the notwithstanding clause —...
It started with mispronunciations-- saying "Regina" wrong, or saying "Atlanta" instead of "Alberta"-- but it spiraled into so much more. With their interest piqued, the Media Ecosystem Observatory began looking into a network of dozens of YouTube channels claiming to be covering Canadian politics from an Albertan perspective, and they found faceless, Dutch content creators to be behind the videos...
